University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

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Published: July 21, 2010

Peter M. Boyd-Bowman, professor emeritus of romance languages and literatures and a pioneer in foreign language self-instruction, died unexpectedly July 1 in his Amherst home at the age of 85.

Boyd-Bowman was a renowned linguist who directed the university’s program for critical languages for 24 years and was co-founder of the Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs, which continues to flourish at many colleges and universities. This program fosters self-managed academic programs in less commonly taught languages such as Arabic, Greek or Ukrainian, thereby immeasurably increasing students’ linguistic proficiency and their world view.

A native of Japan, Bowman lived in various countries before his mother sent him to Canada at the outbreak of World War II. At the end of the war and the beginning of the post-war period, he served as a German interpreter for Canadian forces in Europe. He went on to earn an MA in romance linguistics from the University of Toronto and a PhD, also in romance linguistics, from Harvard University. He began his teaching career at Harvard before accepting an assistant professorship of Spanish linguistics at Yale University.

Bowman later served as chair of the foreign language department at Kalamazoo College in Michigan before coming to UB in 1965 as a full professor.

He taught a wide array of courses, ranging from Old French to the structure of modern Spanish, and was the author of several books, including those written in Spanish; articles and reviews. He lectured extensively in the United States and abroad; and held prestigious fellowships, including a Guggenheim and a Fulbright.

Bowman made important contributions to Romance linguistics and the field of modern language teaching, as well as Latin American studies—especially Mexican history.

He was considered an authority on the Spanish language, having established that the Spanish first spoken in the New World derived from the Andalusian dialect spoken by early settlers.

In the early 1960s, he began a lifetime project to establish the lexicons of New World Spanish and their evolutions, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Survivors include his wife, the former Margit Haragos; two daughters, Susan Emanuel and Janis; and a son, Peter C.

A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Sept. 5 at Canterbury Woods, 705 Renaissance Drive, Amherst.